I speak today on behalf of the many people in my community who have reached out to me who are living with chronic pain, cancer, PTSD, anxiety and other serious health issues who have found hope and relief through legally prescribed medicinal cannabis. They have told me that our roadside drug testing laws are outdated and harmful, because they fail to distinguish between impairment and THC presence in a driver's system. As a result, patients who are following their doctor's advice and using prescribed medicine to manage debilitating symptoms are being unfairly penalised. They risk losing their licence, their job and their independence due to detectable THC, long after the effects wear off.

This is not a technical oversight. It is a systemic failure stripping people of their livelihoods, their dignity and their right to access legal medicine without fear of punishment. Their voices are not just compelling; they are urgent. In the past 12 months, more than 1.2 million cannabis medications were dispensed to people in New South Wales. These are not fringe cases. This is mainstream medicine. The fact is that our laws are failing to recognise that medicinal cannabis is a common, legally prescribed drug in New South Wales, and it should be treated like every other prescription drug. This is matter of fairness and compassion, and it requires our urgent action.

I thank the many constituents who have written to me about this issue. Their stories are powerful and often heartbreaking. One constituent wrote of how life changing medicinal cannabis has been in treating their crippling insomnia. It finally allowed them to sleep and improved their entire wellbeing. Another constituent shared her history of trauma, PTSD and insomnia due to abuse. She described the transformation that medical cannabis brought to her life and how it had allowed her to live independently and maintain her employment. But she also described the devastating consequences of our current laws and losing work to stay on the right side of the law. These are not isolated stories. They are echoed by patients, carers, families and medical professionals across New South Wales.

The New South Wales Labor Party has a proud and principled history of supporting evidence-based medical reform. From the earliest days of harm minimisation, our world-leading response to HIV/AIDS, Premier Bob Carr's NSW Drug Summit in 1999, to the establishment of the Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre in 2001, right through to our Drug Summit this year, Labor governments have listened to the experts and acted with courage and compassion. We have always believed that laws should be grounded in science, not stigma. Our Drug Summit in May brought together patients, clinicians, police, legal experts and community advocates. Their message was unequivocal: Our drug driving laws must be modernised to reflect the reality of medicinal cannabis use. The summit report from co-chairs the Hon. Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden, AM, recommended legislating a medical defence for drivers who test positive for THC but are not impaired, allowing police to assess the defence at the roadside, with a review after 12 months.

This is a practical, evidence-based reform that balances road safety with patient rights. Other jurisdictions, including Tasmania, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Ireland, have already provided a medical defence for unimpaired drivers using cannabis under medical supervision. Helpfully, New South Wales police have operational guidance in place right now to navigate matters involving medical cannabis. It states that if a person claims a product in their possession is medical cannabis, officers should conduct that investigation as they would with any other prescription medication to prove lawful possession. This process could be simply adopted if someone is caught with traces of THC in their system.

Let me be clear: No-one is arguing that driving while impaired should be legal. Road safety must always come first. But the current system does not test for impairment; it tests for the mere presence of THC regardless of whether a person is fit to drive. Our laws are limiting how doctors can advise their patients about how to make informed decisions about when it is safe to drive. This is discriminatory, and it is unsustainable. The Government is due to respond to the Drug Summit's recommendations next month, and I thank the Minister for Health for his continued compassionate approach and his dedication to these important issues. We cannot afford to let this moment pass us by. The evidence is clear, the community is asking for change and the time to act is now. Let us listen to the experts, the people we represent and the clear evidence in front of us. Let us change the law to treat medical cannabis like every other prescription drug.